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CIA's sugar daddies shovel MEELLLIONS into Pure Storage

If we told you exactly what for, we'd have to kill you

All-flash array upstart Pure Storage has received the blessing of the CIA after the spooks' venture capital arm In-Q-Tel made an investment in the firm.

In-Q-Tel is based in Arlington, Virginia, and was created in 1999 as a non-profit organisation. It invests in companies offering technology that could help the intelligence community, such data analytics and malware analysis.

A typical In-Q-Tel investment us understood to be $3 million. The spooks have previously invested in CleverSafe, Silver Tail Systems (acquired by EMC), Palantir, Cloudera, Cloudant, and many other companies.

As well as the CIA, In-Q-Tel supports the US Department of Defense, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Department of Homeland Security.

Pure Storage has also just launched its Gen 3 FlashArray, which runs faster and does more than the Gen 2 product.

El Reg understands that parts of the intelligence community could use Pure System's FlashArray technology to access large amounts of data at high speed, but it may need enhancements just for the spooks. This investment is one way of ensuring that.

Pure itself is tight-lipped about the amount of In-Q-Tel cash it's receiving, as well as exactly what it's doing for the spooks, saying only that it is an investment and development agreement. ®